St. Louis (The Cardinal Nation Show) - Our own Mike Shannon is among the ten of most beloved and honored baseball broadcasters named today as the finalists for the 2013 Ford C. Frick Award. The award is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The 10 finalists are: Tom Cheek, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, John Gordon, Bill King, Graham McNamee, Eric Nadel, Eduardo Ortega, Mike Shannon and Dewayne Staats. The winner of the 2013 Frick Award will be announced on December 4 at the Baseball Winter Meetings and honored during Hall of Fame Weekend, July 26-29, 2013 in Cooperstown.

The 10 finalists for the 2013 Frick Award include the three fan selections produced from online balloting at the Hall of Fame's Facebook page - www.facebook.com/baseballhall - over two separate rounds in August, September and October. A total of 34,283 votes were cast. Cheek, King and Doucet emerged as the top three fan selections, respectively, in the online voting. The other seven candidates were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. Doucet, Nadel, Ortega, Shannon and Staats are the active broadcasters on the ballot. Gordon is the only other living candidate among the finalists.

Shannon has called Cardinals games for 41 years following a nine-year playing career with the Redbirds. To be considered, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two. More than 200 broadcasters were eligible for consideration for the award based on these qualifications for 2013.

The annual award is named in memory of Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, renowned sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner. Past recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award: